Trayvon Martin

As I lamented on the Trayvon Martin tragedy and tried to siphon through my feelings regarding the circumstances leading up to this most unfortunate incident, a number of things came to mind.  One of the emotions that I find myself grappling with as I stared at his photograph was a sense of depression; I saw a beautiful life that not here anymore, a boy that was on the threshold of becoming a man.  Now, I am angry toward Mr. Zimmerman because all that I have read and heard so far seem to point to racial profiling.  I am concerned that such a person was allowed to continue patrolling the neighborhood without some kind of intervention by authorities even after mounting evidence showed that this guy might be unstable. He had made numerous calls (more than 40 since January) to the police reporting unidentified African Americans walking in the community and was not very discreet with the tirades.

The gun law “stand your ground” definitely needs some clarification, but this is not my major concern. I do believe in self defense, but this incident clearly shows Mr. Zimmerman as the aggressor who violated the right of Trayvon to use the public walkway.  As a matter of fact, if I was in Trayvon’s place, and an over zealous person like Mr. Zimmerman approached me,  I would use the “stand my ground” law to protect myself from him.  I believe Treyvon was the one standing his ground. Unfortunately, he was up against a much bigger person with a weapon.  As I recall, there was another such incident recently in Hialeah, Florida. Two African American young men were walking through a business district when an over zealous man began to shout racial slur towards them, telling them to leave the area.  The man proceeded to get into his truck and charged at the two African American in a threatening manner.  Fearing for their lives, one of the two men drew his weapon and fired into the truck injuring their attacker. I am convinced that this single action probably saved their lives. The two African Americans were not charged. Instead, after the evidence was revealed, the attacker himself was arrested and charged. The “stand your ground” law was used properly in the case.

As for Mr. Zimmerman, he needs to be charged not just for murder, but for civil rights violations as well and put before a jury of his peers to decide his fate.  This is the expectation of our society and I am quite perplexed as to why the basic first step in this process has yet to happen.  This is where I am most troubled with this situation; the action or might I say, inaction, by the authorities has alarmed me a great deal.  This is where we should focus our questions.  Here is a sheriff who was put in a position to not only protect the public, but equally as important, to make sure justice is served for victims and their families. Now this police department walked on to a crime scene where a kid was murdered by a gun-toting adult who is known to be overly zealous regarding his self-appointed neighborhood watch man title, who also has a criminal pass due to battery of a former girlfriend, and who, also in a separate incident, was charged with resisting arrest.  This sheriff department took this man’s testimony and accepted his story that he acted in self defense.  They did so without doing a drug or alcohol test; they did so without proper or intense  interrogation; they did so without making sure that every person in the neighbor was interviewed; they did so without checking phone records of the victim to know that at the time, it was possible that he was in conversation with some one who could have been a credible witness.  It was as if they just said, “Oh well,  sorry about that”, then casually sent the killer home, cleaned up the scene, and went on with business as usual.  So casual and callous was the clean up, that this killing did not get the public’s attention until days after the incident. But praise God, the parents were persistent in getting an answer to why their son was killed.  Why was this?  Why did the sheriff respond in this manner?

These questions I can’t answer, but as God gave me an active conscience, I have come to the most logical conclusion using what wisdom my four plus decades on earth have build up in me.  I am not one to draw the race card on everything that ever happens to blacks in this country. As a matter of fact, I do believe that the race card factor at times is abused, over-used.  But in this case, I have to conclude that the outcome or the response by the sheriff department had a race effect.  The value of Trayvon’s life was not viewed with the same importance as it would have if he was white.  Maybe, just maybe, the Sheriff’s office also saw this innocent victim as how Mr. Zimmerman saw him…”these as….. always get away”.  Seeing a dead black kid lying on the sidewalk did not stir up enough emotion for them to put any effort in their investigation. Their focus was not to determine if it was a justified killing or not.

We live in a sinful and fallen world, and unfortunately from time to time we will have to face evil head on. Fortunately, we have a Just God who will judge everyone according to His divine knowledge in the coming age.  I cannot pass judgement on Mr. Zimmerman as to the condition of his heart. Whether, this was done out of true hate, or whether it was just an accidental shooting, or if this was truly in self-defense, God knows the truth, and His judgement will be just.  This is what we expect as citizens of this great country, which though imperfect, has established and practiced some of the greatest freedom laws ever in the history of the existence of man.  With all the questions, inconsistencies, background of the individual, and the fact that the suspect disobeyed direct order from law enforcement not to engage the victim, there was enough evidence to charge the killer with some level of crime. His innocence, he could prove otherwise in a court of law. This is not a perfect judgement system, but it is the best this world has to offer, and we accept the courts’ decisions whether we agree or not, so help us God.

My prayer is that in all this, the Martin family, relatives, friends and school mates will find peace and exercise forgiveness, as this is Christ’s will for us in these difficult of situations.  I also pray that instead of division, this country will find unity, a coming together, that will make us stronger, so whenever this kind of misguided behavior or other sort of evil raises its ugly head, we are able to stand united, strengthened by our common bonds of love and together, stronger than ever, overcome this vitriol that is being spewed by the few.

JR Tracey